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For some background, there is a luxury hotel in Nice, France called Le Negresco. Being a five-star hotel, I will probably never get anywhere near it myself but it's nice that there are platforms like YouTube to vicariously enjoy a tour.
Not sure if singer-songwriter BORO had been inspired by a visit there to come up with his 7th single "Negresco Hotel" which was released on New Year's Day 1983. I had only known BORO up to now for his famous and famously long ballad "Osaka de Umareta Onna"（大阪で生まれた女）, so it was a surprise to find out about this classy AOR creation to which he provided lyrics and vocals while Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）came up with the groovy melody. For a song based on a hotel on the southern coast of France, it sounds quite West Coast.
"Negresco Hotel" did fairly well on the charts by scoring at No. 31, selling a little over 60,000 records. Plus, it was used in a commercial that you can see above. True to a lot of Japanese television ads, I was kept in the dark as to what it was trying to sell (Japanese commercials are often about image and atmosphere) until I finally realized that it was for a drink called Sinvino for those who are more on the teetotaler side of things. I frankly doubt that Sinvino was ever found on the grounds of the Negresco.
Hmm, I wonder if Negersco ever invested in Japanese drinks for their patrons from Japan?
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